“I’m not the most empathetic person in the world anyway, but look first of all it’s sports,” Van Gundy said. “The thing that would make me feel bad for somebody was some personal issue. I’m not going to feel bad that you are struggling on a basketball court because you only get to within two wins of a championship. Come on, there was nothing to feel sorry for.”

And because of that, Van Gundy isn’t accepting that the Heat inspire more hate than any other team.

“”I got a little tired I’ll admit of the whole ‘everybody hates us’ routine. I thought first of all it’s not true,” Van Gundy said. “Okay it’s the same as the Yankees type of thing. There’s just a lot of people interested, so there may be more people who dislike you. There are also more people that like you. There’s a great deal of interest.

“Second of all they brought it on…LeBron more than anybody. They brought all that scrutiny and attention on yourself. You went out seeking it then don’t cry in the face of it. That to me got to be a very tiresome story line.”

Van Gundy had other thoughts in the wide-ranging interview, including his surprise about the Heat losing to the Mavericks and whether he thought James disappeared in the fourth quarter of playoff games this year.

His comments likely didn’t make him any popular in South Florida, either.